The indictment of a dozen officials of the Russian GRU laid down Friday on charges of meddling in the 2016 election, on the eve of the summit, insured that most of the questions asked of the two leaders would be about the overworked Trump-Russia collusion narrative, and the Hobson's choice presented to Trump by that reality meant that, at least in public, he was either going to have wasted his time in Helsinki or come out of the press conference looking like a weakling.
Shortly after the announcement, Senate Minority Leader Chuckie Schumer said, "President Trump should cancel his meeting with Vladimir Putin until Russia takes demonstrable and transparent steps to prove that they won't interfere in future elections. Glad-handing with Vladimir Putin on the heels of these indictments would be an insult to our democracy."
So Trump is asked about the Russian meddling, the overtone of which is the Democrat Party accusation he colluded somehow with the Russians to rig the election, and he's put in the position either to back the U.S. intelligence community which has helped to perpetuate that story and weaken his presidency or to criticize his own government in the presence of Putin - who has unmistakably acted against American interests his entire adult life - and in so doing suffer a hit to his own and his nation's prestige.
Trump needed to find some sort of middle ground which didn't involve throwing his Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats under the bus by saying "My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others. They said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin, he just said it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be."I have great confidence in my intelligence people," he said.
The fact is Russia has been meddling in American elections - and American society - since the October Revolution of 1917.
Thanks to President Trump, Russia now understands that America's intervention in Iraq was not a deliberate effort to destabilize the region, and that its support for Sunni jihadists in Syria was not a deliberate effort to create an Islamist monster with which to destabilize Russia.
Trump might have missed an opportunity to reassert American prestige at Putin's expense, and in doing so delegitimized his Deep State tormentors, but so far it doesn't appear that the summit changed anything with respect to the far tougher stance he's taken toward the Russians than did his predecessor.
https://spectator.org/helsinki-hysteria/
Shortly after the announcement, Senate Minority Leader Chuckie Schumer said, "President Trump should cancel his meeting with Vladimir Putin until Russia takes demonstrable and transparent steps to prove that they won't interfere in future elections. Glad-handing with Vladimir Putin on the heels of these indictments would be an insult to our democracy."
So Trump is asked about the Russian meddling, the overtone of which is the Democrat Party accusation he colluded somehow with the Russians to rig the election, and he's put in the position either to back the U.S. intelligence community which has helped to perpetuate that story and weaken his presidency or to criticize his own government in the presence of Putin - who has unmistakably acted against American interests his entire adult life - and in so doing suffer a hit to his own and his nation's prestige.
Trump needed to find some sort of middle ground which didn't involve throwing his Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats under the bus by saying "My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others. They said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin, he just said it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be."I have great confidence in my intelligence people," he said.
The fact is Russia has been meddling in American elections - and American society - since the October Revolution of 1917.
Thanks to President Trump, Russia now understands that America's intervention in Iraq was not a deliberate effort to destabilize the region, and that its support for Sunni jihadists in Syria was not a deliberate effort to create an Islamist monster with which to destabilize Russia.
Trump might have missed an opportunity to reassert American prestige at Putin's expense, and in doing so delegitimized his Deep State tormentors, but so far it doesn't appear that the summit changed anything with respect to the far tougher stance he's taken toward the Russians than did his predecessor.
https://spectator.org/helsinki-hysteria/
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